Through the Veil
by jaded-eye
Summary: What if the veil didn't kill the people, but sent them to a different time? In the DOM Hermione tried to stop Sirius from falling through the veil, but instead fell through with him. They find themselves in Hogwarts during the Marauder's time. Not HG/SB.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I am only borrowing the characters for a short while. Anything that is recognizable is not mine. This will only be posted on this chapter, but it will stand for the entire story.

Hermione ran into the room skidding to a stop at the top of the stairs. Curses were being shot in every direction. Quickly taking in who was dueling with whom, she shot down the stairs trying to reach Harry. She saw that he was close to Sirius and almost froze mid-step when it registered that Sirius was locked in a battle with Bellatrix Lestrange.

She reached the floor of the courtroom and tripped over Mad-Eye Moody's still form. Forcing her thoughts onto the fighting all around her, she sent a stunning spell at Lucius Malfoy as she closed the gap between herself and Harry and Sirius. She was firing stunners as fast as she could. Her vision was encompassed by streams of different colors as curses and stunners flew in every direction, being shot from both sides.

She had just stunned the Death Eater that had been dueling against Tonks, when she turned to see Sirius get hit with a spell shot from Bellatrix. She watched in horror as Sirius began to fall backwards as the spell knocked him off his feet. She tried to reach him, to keep him from falling through the veil. She didn't know why, but she had the feeling that he wouldn't be coming back if he fell through it. She grabbed a hold of his arm as tight as she could and tried to slow the both of them down, but she was pulled off of her feet by Sirius and they both fell through the veil.

As she was dragged through the veil she heard Harry calling out to them just before the world went silent, as if all sound was cut off. The colors swirling around her were moving so fast that she began to feel sick. Tightening her grip on Sirius' arm she began to lose consciousness as it felt as if her body was being pulled into a hundred directions at once.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Waking in the Past

Hermione woke up to find herself lying on a cold, hard stone floor. Her entire body was aching and she felt as if all of her nerve endings were on fire. Slowly opening her eyes she found herself starring up at the ceiling of the Entrance Hall in Hogwarts. Her head felt as if a white hot poker was stabbing her through the head repeatedly. Raising herself up onto her arms she found Sirius lying unconscious just to her right.

Panic rushed through her as she took in Sirius' limp form. Disregarding her own pain she rushed to his side. Rolling him onto his back she began to attempt to wake him up. Slowly he regained consciousness and grimaced in pain. Opening his eyes Hermione could see that he was confused.

"How did we get here?"

Hermione was still panicking, since she didn't know how long it would be until someone stumbled upon them. "Sirius you have to transform. I don't know how we ended up back at Hogwarts or where the others are, but you can't be seen. The ministry will take you away if someone sees you." Hermione finished, almost pleading.

Sirius' mind seemed to catch up to their current situation and he transformed into Snuffles. Snuffles climbed to his feet and took a hold of Hermione's sleeve to help pull her up. He then began walking towards the grand staircase, looking back to make sure Hermione was following. As she followed Snuffles, Hermione's mind was working on overload. She couldn't figure out how they had gotten back from the ministry. The last thing she remembered was fighting in the Department of Mysteries in the Ministry of Magic in London. Now they were inside Hogwarts in Scotland. If they were here, where were Harry and her friends? Where was the rest of the Order? Where were the Death Eaters? Did everyone make it? Was anyone seriously injured?

***Through the Veil***

She was brought out of her frantic thoughts by a cold, wet nose pressing against her hand. Looking up she found Snuffles staring at her as they stood outside the stone gargoyle that guarded Dumbledore's office.

What was the password? What had Harry said about the passwords before? All of the passwords were candy names. She began to recite every candy she could think of. "Pepper Imps…Drouble's Best Blowing Gum…Bertie's Botts Every Flavor Beans…Pumpkin Pasties…Lemon Drops…Blood Pops." The gargoyle swung to the side allowing them to access the revolving staircase behind it. Snuffles was grinning and barked once as they climbed onto the staircase.

At the top of the stairs Hermione knocked on the door using the Gryffin knocker in its center. They entered upon hearing a voice call out to them and came to a stop before Dumbledore's desk. Hermione took in the appearance of the room; she had never actually been in it before. She turned quickly to glance at Snuffles as he let out a low whine. Seeing the anxious look on Snuffle's face she looked up at Dumbledore.

Dumbledore was looking back and forth between Hermione and Snuffles with an odd expression on his face. To Hermione, it was as if Dumbledore didn't know her, but he seemed to have an odd twinkle in his eyes every time they landed on Snuffles. She was startled out of her observation of Dumbledore when Sirius transformed back to human form. If it was possible, the twinkle in Dumbledore's eyes brightened as his eyes took in Sirius' appearance.

"Good afternoon Mr. Black, perhaps you would like to introduce your companion?" Dumbledore let a grin cross his face when he finished. Hermione stood rooted to her spot in shock. She wanted to tell him that he had known her for the last five years, but she couldn't seem to form the words.

"Good afternoon professor. I am Sirius Black and this is Hermione Granger, she has just finished her fifth year in Gryffindor. We need your help." Taking in Hermione's lost expression, Sirius pointed out a calendar hanging to the left of Dumbledore's desk. The calendar depicted a grazing unicorn in a forest with the top proclaiming in large bold blue letters **August 1976**. Hermione froze before looking back at Sirius.

"We were in a battle in the Department of Mysteries and were cursed through the veil in one of the courtrooms. It was June 1995 when we fell through the veil and we woke up here in the Entrance Hall. We need to get back as soon as possible to help everyone." Sirius finished and Dumbledore regarded them over the top of his glasses.

"I am familiar with the veil in the Department of Mysteries that you are speaking of, as I have previously done research on it in the past. The thing about that veil is that during my research I have found that it is extremely unpredictable. It seems to send anything or anyone that falls through it to a different location and time in the past. The times and locations seem to run on a continuous circular loop, but all times are in the past compared to the time in which the object or person entered the veil. Due to this knowledge, it will be impossible to send you back to your time using the same means as you came here by. If you did, you would only end up further in the past at an unfamiliar location. I will attempt to locate a different means to send you back to your time, but in the mean time we will need to come up with cover stories for both of you."

He waited a couple of minutes to let that sink in before continuing. "I fear what would happen to you if either Lord Voldemort or the Ministry of Magic were to learn the truth of where you came from."

At this Hermione and Sirius looked at each other. Both of them knew exactly what would happen if either of those groups found out about them. "You both would be in serious danger since you have knowledge of future events. It would be safer for both of you if you were to remain at Hogwarts."

Dumbledore turned his attention to Hermione before continuing. "Perhaps Miss Granger could continue her schooling with us. She could be placed into sixth year Gryffindor." At a slight nod from Hermione Dumbledore turned his attention to Sirius.

"As I know Mr. Black you are an excellent student in DADA and as of right now wish to be an auror." Sirius confirmed that he had been an auror in the future.

"Perhaps you could be the DADA professor for this year, since I have still been unable to procure a replacement for Professor Linatry. It would only be fitting I think." Sirius gave a nod of his head to indicate that he accepted the job and a bashful grin at the reference.

At this indication Dumbledore continued. "I will allow you and Miss Granger to fill in the rest of your cover story as you wish. Just let me know what story you agree upon so that I can help to corroborate it. You can take the quarters for the DADA professor. I am sure you know where it is Mr. Black." The twinkling in Dumbledore's eye became brighter, while Sirius grinned.

"You will need to set the password the first time you step into the quarters. Once you decide upon identities I will set you up with a sign on bonus so that you can purchase necessary personal items that you will need." Sirius thanked Professor Dumbledore and lead Hermione down to their new quarters.

***Through the Veil***

Sirius brought Hermione to stop at the portrait next to the DADA classroom. The portrait depicted a wolf running through the forest under the full moon. When they stopped before the portrait, the wolf walked to the foreground of the portrait and sat down. Sirius studied the wolf for a moment before he grinned. "Let's set the password for pleine lune (full moon in French I think)." Hermione smiled and followed Sirius into the quarters.

The room before them gave off a feeling of warmth and comfort. To the left there was a sitting area before the fireplace that was made up of two red overstuffed armchairs and a comfortable looking couch with a small wooden table in between them. To the right that was a small dining area with a table and four chairs. On the far side of the room there were two doors that presumably lead to bedrooms.

Hermione's inspection broke as Sirius spoke to her. "Go ahead and take the room to the left and I will take the one to the right. They are fairly similar to each other and each has their own bathroom connected inside."

"How do you know so much about these quarters?"

"Let's just say that Professor Linatry had ample reason to leave his post at the end of last year. He seemed to have gotten on the wrong side of the Marauders. So how about we start working on our cover story."

Sirius started to walk over to the sitting area and claimed one of the armchairs. Hermione followed him and claimed the other armchair.

"So we will need to come up with new names, where we lived, why we moved here and other general things," stated Hermione. She was so overwhelmed with everything that she automatically fell back into old habits of laying everything out logically.

Sirius observed Hermione for a moment before he spoke. "Well, we can say that I am your uncle and that I took guardianship of you after your parents died in an accident a short while ago. Maybe we could say that you and your parents lived in Northern France, possibly Lyon and that when they died you came to live with me in England. That would explain why you haven't attended Hogwarts before now."

"That would work pretty well. I am fairly fluent in French, so that story would work. What about names though? We can't very well keep our own." They were both silent with their own thoughts for a couple of minutes before an idea came to Hermione.

"Sirius I never told you. Actually I never told anyone before, but my birth name wasn't Hermione Granger." At Sirius' startled expression Hermione continued.

"Last summer, before I came to Grimmauld Place I had a fight with my parents. I had been looking through my father's desk at home for my birth certificate. I was going to be turning 16 that September and I needed my birth certificate to begin the process to get my driver's license. I wouldn't have been able to take the test till winter holidays, but I could start practicing. Anyway, when I located my birth certificate in the drawer, I found adoption papers with it. After studying the papers, I was stunned when I found my name on them. I came to find out that my parent's had adopted me when I was six months old. The papers stated that my birth name was Isabella Hermione St. Clair. My birthday was written as September 19, 1979. The papers said that my birth parents were Anne St. Clair ne Harrison and Pierre St. Clair. They said that I was put in the orphanage when my parents were killed in an accident in London. I had a fight with my parents that night when they came home about why I hadn't ever been told. I was so angry with them that I packed my trunk that night and the next day I went to Grimmauld Place."

She paused here for a moment to collect her thoughts. "Over the past year at Hogwarts I looked into my history and found that my mother was a half-blood from America and my father was a muggle from Montpellier, France. They had been living in America for five years and were killed in a Death Eater attack while visiting London in early 1980. So we could use my birth name for our identities. I could go by Isabella Hermione St. Clair, saying I prefer to be called by my middle name. I could say that I lived in Lyon, France and was home schooled by my mother until they were recently killed and I came to live with you in England. We could say that you are my Uncle, Orion Sirius Harrison. That way I could still call you Uncle Sirius. You could say that you had been living in London and had just taken the DADA post for this year when I came to live with you."

At this moment Sirius was reminded of why Hermione was called the brightest witch of her age. He was still trying to take in everything that Hermione had just told him. He had to admit that it was a pretty good cover story for them. Sirius agreed with Hermione and said that he would go inform Dumbledore, as long as she was sure about it. At a nod from Hermione he rose to leave their quarters. At that moment, Hermione realized how exhausted she was from the events of the day and bid Sirius goodnight before he left their quarters.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Summer Routine and Diagon Alley

Over the next two weeks Hermione and Sirius (or Uncle Sirius as she now called him) fell into a routine. Every morning they had breakfast with the staff in the Great Hall, where everyone sat at a single table.

She found that she knew all of the professors from her time, except for the Divination Professor, Professor Straline. At least this professor didn't seem as irritating as Professor Trelawney did in the future.

After breakfast she would help Sirius with his lesson plans for his Defense Against the Dark Arts classes. With Sirius' personality and tendencies to goof around, this wasn't getting done as quickly as she felt that it should. Although, Hermione was learning to relax and goof around a little also. She found that without the threat of danger hanging around every corner she was able to breathe a little easier and laugh a little more.

In the afternoon they would have lunch together in their quarters and then work on her animagus transformation for a couple of hours. This actually came about because they were both trying to keep as busy as possible to keep from thinking about the friends and family they left behind in the future. During a talk they had the first morning they were in the past; Hermione had told Sirius that she had hoped to become an animagus in the future. At this point Sirius said that he would help her and they had started work on her transformation that day. She had already discovered that her form was a sleek gray wolf and she had progressed to being able to change each of her limbs, but couldn't fully transform. With Sirius' help the whole process was going much faster than she had ever thought that it could.

During the evenings they had taken to talking about the adventures each of them had had at Hogwarts. When Hermione told Sirius about her first (and last) flying class and the fact that she had never been on a broom since then, Sirius had decided that flying was another thing that she needed to learn. Each evening since then, he had instructed Hermione on flying a broom for a while. At first Sirius took Hermione up with him, until she was comfortable with the feeling of flying. By this point, Hermione had progressed to actually being able to leave the ground by herself and lazily fly over the pitch. Now, she never went as high as Harry and Ron when they flew and she never performed any tricks, but at least she was comfortable with leaving the ground on her own.

Over the past two weeks Hermione and Sirius had become a lot closer and now really felt like the family that they were telling everyone they were. Hermione no longer felt weird calling Sirius her uncle, she actually got a warm feeling inside when he responded to it.

This morning however, their routine was going to be broken. Sirius and Hermione were going to go to Diagon Alley to get her school supplies for the year.

The day after they had arrived Sirius had taken Hermione into muggle London where they both bought muggle clothing and necessities. Hermione had laughed uncontrollably that day when Sirius came walking out of a muggle shop in a red shirt, dark blue jeans and a black leather jacket like he owned the world. He had just looked so different than she had ever seen him and the cocky grin on his face just set the look off.

Now though, with only a week left before the students would be returning, they needed to get Hermione's school supplies and Sirius had to get some robes to wear for class. Hermione could just imagine Sirius walking into the classroom to teach his first Defense Against the Dark Arts class in his jeans and a t-shirt.

Hermione was curled up in the armchair before the fire reading the current (past to her) edition of "Hogwarts: A History" when Sirius walked in through the portrait hole.

Walking over to Hermione, Sirius handed her her Hogwarts letter for the year. Opening it she saw the familiar writing welcoming her back to Hogwarts and her list of school supplies for the year.

She had already sat down and spoken with Professor Dumbledore regarding her classes. After talking for a couple of hours, casting the standard spells for fifth year and answering questions regarding their theory, he had given her permission to continue any of the classes she had previously taken.

Looking over her letter she saw her list of required books.

Defense Against the Dark Arts : "Defensive Strategy"

Transfiguration: "The Standard Book of Spells Grade 6"

Charms: "Advanced Charms"

Potions: "Advanced Potion Brewing"

Ancient Runes: "Advanced Ancient Runes"

Arithmancy: "Standard Arithmancy Level 3"

She had chosen to not continue Care of Magical Creatures (she felt that she had had enough run-ins with dangerous creatures to last her a lifetime) and Astronomy.

Gathering the bag that she had picked-up in muggle London from the floor beside her chair; she followed Sirius through the floo.

***Through the Veil***

Sirius was standing a few feet from the floo in the Leaky Cauldron when Hermione stumbled out. He caught her around the waist to keep her from falling down. Hermione looked up and thanked Sirius for catching her when she noticed that he was grinning at her. "What?"

"I just find it funny that the 'smartest witch of her age' can't use the floo system without stumbling." Hermione's cheeks flushed with embarrassment.

"Well, I guess that I have a difficult time with wizarding transportation. I don't do too well with portkeys or brooms either. Although, I am getting better with the broom aspect."

Sirius waved at Tom and they headed out of the back of the Leaky Cauldron to the entrance to Diagon Alley. She had been here once before when they got money from Gringott's to shop in muggle London, but it still surprised her how little had changed in Diagon Alley between now and her time.

***Through the Veil***

They walked along in silence, each lost in memories. They retrieved money from their vault and headed to Madame Maulkin's Robes for all Occasions. Upon entering Hermione was startled when a voice called out, "I will be right with you Mr. Black." She glanced over at Sirius to gage his reaction and found him to be smiling.

Over their time in the past Sirius had begun to look healthy. His skin was no longer pallid, but now shown with a healthy glow from the time he spent outside on the quidditch field flying. Sirius used to barely laugh or smile, but it seemed like every day he was relaxing and laughing more.

Madame Maulkin began walking towards them and faltered slightly upon looking at Sirius. "I am sorry; I mistook you for someone else. How may I help you today?"

"Hello Madame. My name is Orion Harrison and this is my niece Hermione St. Clair. I need to get her a full school compliment for Hogwarts and I will require eight new robes."

"It's a pleasure to meet you Mr. Harrison and Miss St. Clair. Let's begin with Miss St. Clair."

Hermione stepped up onto the stool and was immediately surrounded by tape measures zooming around, taking measurements from every possible angle. Within five minutes Madame Maulkin declared her finished with her fitting and told her that she would owl her finished robes to her within a few days.

As Sirius began to walk forward to be fitted for his robes, he told Hermione that she could go ahead and head over to the bookstore since his fitting would take longer.

"In other words, you don't want to be stuck in the bookstore forever and you think that you will get out of it by sending me over now." Sirius' only response was to give a crooked grin as he walked over to Madame Maulkin.

***Through the Veil***

Hermione grinned as she entered the bookstore. She quickly set off around the store to find her required textbooks. When she found her books, she began to browse the store.

Unfortunately, most of the books she saw lining the shelves she had already read in the future. Walking past the shelves that had held multiple copies of the collected works of Gilderoy Lockhart in the future made her pause. Instead of Lockhart's books sitting on the shelves she found a mixture of muggle and wizard fiction.

Quickly glancing over the titles, Hermione settled on picking up a copy of "Pride and Prejudice". She quickly opened the book to her favorite part. When Elizabeth and her aunt and uncle visited Pemberly during their trip and began to read.

A chuckle from her right brought Hermione back to reality and away from the interaction of Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy by the carriage. Looking in that direction she found a boy standing there holding a copy of "I, Robot" by Isaac Asimov.

The boy stood about six foot tall, had short sandy colored hair and mischievous amber eyes. He was dressed in a faded pair of jeans and a gray long sleeved t-shirt. There were multiple faint scars on his skin, but they were overshadowed by the lopsided grin covering his face.

"You know, you should really start at the beginning of the book. Not just jump straight to the middle. You could miss a lot of important events." His eyes shown with his amusement as he glanced from Hermione's face to the book held in her hands.

"Oh, well this is my favorite part. I can't recall how many times I have read this book, so I think it might be okay," Hermione replied with a grin of her own.

"My name is Remus Lupin, it is good to meet you."

"Hermione St. Clair."

Hermione shook Remus' offered hand, but couldn't believe that she was meeting her future professor. He looked happy and she could see the mischievous glint in his eyes. His face wasn't as scarred as it would be in the future and he didn't look as worn as he did most of the time she had known him.

"I don't remember seeing you before. You don't go to Hogwarts do you?"

"I have been home schooled till now, but I will be going to Hogwarts this year for my sixth year."

"I will be in my sixth year Gryffindor at Hogwarts this September. What house do you want to be in?"

"Well, I will be in Gryffindor. Professor Dumbledore already sorted me since I have been staying at the castle for the summer."

"Great. We will be sharing classes. If you don't mind me asking, why have you been staying at the castle?"

"My uncle is the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor for this year and I have been staying with him."

"Hermione you wound me. I am not just your uncle, I am your favorite uncle." Sirius had come up behind them without Hermione and Remus becoming aware of his presence. Sirius grinned as both of them jumped away from him.

"Uncle Sirius you are my only uncle, how can you not be my favorite?"

Sirius just grinned and transferred his gaze to Remus. "Orion Harrison, nice to meet you."

"Remus Lupin, Sir."

Remus looked confused after the introduction. "I thought you called him Uncle Sirius?"

"His name is Orion Sirius Harrison, but I have always called him Uncle Sirius." Remus just nodded his head up and down in acknowledgement.

"Hermione we need to get going and get the rest of your school supplies. If I don't get you out of here you will stay in here all day."

"Okay. It was nice to meet you Remus, I will see you on the train. Bye."

"Bye Hermione."


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: First Steps into a New Life

Hermione gazed out the window of the compartment and watched the families interacting and saying their goodbyes on the platform. She felt a slight twinge as she watched the parents saying goodbye to their children with lots of hugs and tears; and in some cases scolding's and warnings to be on their best behavior. She missed her parents and felt terrible that the last time she had seen them, they had had an argument.

Her parents had only brought her to platform 9 ¾ for her first two years. Each year after that she was always staying with the Weasley's for the end of the summer and had come to the platform with them. Now she just wished that she could see her parents again and tell them how sorry she was and how much she loved them.

Over the years as she went to Hogwart's, she seemed to spend less and less time with them and more and more time talking to them through letters. She couldn't even pick-up a telephone and call them most of the time, because there wasn't a phone at the Burrow or Grimmauld Place. It had bothered her that her parents and her seemed to be growing apart the longer she spent in the wizarding world. With each year that passed Hermione had explained less and less of the events in her world, because her parents just couldn't understand what she was going through. When her parents had become worried and threatened to withdraw her from Hogwart's at the end of her second year, she had decided that she had to stop telling them anything that happened that could worry them. The rift had begun with that decision and continued to grow with each year, but right now she would give just about anything to be able to be saying goodbye to her parents on the platform before the train departed.

Without Sirius around the doubts and worries she felt were harder to keep away. Professor Dumbledore had told them that he would look for a way for them to return to their time, but as more and more time passed Hermione was becoming less hopeful that he would be successful. As the reality set in that they might be stuck in this time permanently Hermione found her emotions running continuously through a cycle encompassing depression, anxiety, sadness, happiness and worry. At the moment the cycle seemed to have settled on depression and was stuck as she continued to watch the families on the platform.

Watching all of the people on the platform made Hermione acutely aware of the lack of Harry and Ron by her side. Their absence felt like a knife through the chest. They weren't just her best friends, they were her family. She had never been at Hogwarts without them and she knew that this year was going to be hard without them by her side.

In addition to Harry and Ron she missed the entire Weasley family, even Fred and George. Her extended family had grown to include so many people over her time at Hogwarts, and now she was locked away in the past away from everyone she loved. She didn't know how she would have been able to cope if Sirius wasn't here with her. They helped each other through the hard times that appeared when something reminded them of the loved ones they were separated from.

Hermione was pulled from her memories by the sound of whistle warning those on the platform that the train would be leaving in one minute. Glancing back out the window she watched as children made a mad dash for the train doors while parents and younger siblings waved.

Sirius had talked Hermione into leaving her trunk at Hogwart's and only taking her bag on the train ride with her. He didn't see the point in transporting her trunk all the way to London just to bring it back to Hogwarts with the train. As the train began to move out of the station Hermione reached down to her bag and pulled out the copy of "Pride and Prejudice" that she had picked-up in Diagon Alley and laid it on the seat beside her before digging back through her bag for her gray zip-up sweatshirt.

This morning Hermione had dressed in a mid-thigh length denim skirt and a pink tank top. She and Sirius had spent the morning walking around muggle London to get their thoughts together before they were surrounded by hundreds of students tonight. It had been unseasonably warm in London as they were walking, but now on the train it was cool.

She put on her gray sweatshirt and reached over to pick-up her book before curling up on the seat and leaning against the window. Starting at the beginning of her book she had only made it to the morning after the Merryton Ball when the compartment door opened and four boys entered almost doubled-over laughing. They closed the compartment door before the first one noticed her in the corner.

Remus had looked at her when he noticed that the compartment wasn't empty. "At least this time you are starting at the beginning." Hermione smiled at him as a lopsided grin appeared on his face and he took the seat across from her next to the window. "Well I decided to take your advice and start at the beginning so I didn't, what did you call it, miss a lot of important events." The other three boys had taken seats by now and were glancing back and forth between Hermione and Remus.

Taking her time to look over the other occupants of the compartment she studied the boy seated to Remus' left. He was wearing a pair of blue jeans and a black t-shirt with the Tornadoes quidditch team logo across the front. He was tall with uncontrollable black hair, a decent build, a smirk showing itself on his face and amused hazel eyes that were flicking back and forth between herself and Remus. He was lounged across the seat as if he didn't have a care in the world. James Potter looked so much like her best friend in that moment that a sharp pain struck through her chest.

To James' left sat a short, pudgy boy with thin blonde hair, small beady eyes and a nervous smile. He was already wearing his uniform, but not his robes. She had recognized him almost immediately. Peter Pettigrew. Instead of the pain she had felt when she looked at James, with Peter her chest had filled with anger and hate. She decided that she had to quickly look to the last occupant of the compartment before she went through with the thought of cursing Pettigrew where he sat. Although Sirius probably wouldn't mind too much if she cursed Pettigrew now, she wouldn't be able to explain why she had done it.

Turning to look at the boy that had taken the seat next to her, her heart immediately filled with love and a sense of protection. Sirius was sprawled across the seat, mirroring James' posture on the other side of the compartment. He was wearing black jeans and a red long sleeved t-shirt with Gryffindor written across the front in gold script. His black hair was shoulder length and lying gracefully across his eyes. He had a smirk on his face and was looking back and forth between Remus and James.

Hermione could now completely understand the brotherly relationship that her Remus and Sirius had described as having existed between James and Sirius. She could tell that in the short eye contact James and Sirius were establishing that an entire conversation was taking place. With the amusement that she could see in each of their eyes she wasn't so sure that she shouldn't get up and run right then and there. They easily had many of the same mannerisms and were both perfectly comfortable in the present situation, knowing without a doubt that the other would back them up if anything were to ever happen.

Having finished her glance at all of the occupants of the compartment, Hermione returned her attention to Remus. Even though she perfectly well knew each of them she had to act as if she didn't. "Who are your friends Remus?"

Waving his hand to his left Remus introduced his friends. "This is James Potter, Peter Pettigrew and Sirius Black. Guys this is Hermione St. Clair she will be in 6th year Gryffindor with us." As each of the boys nodded their greeting to her, Hermione smiled back.

"So Remus, how do you and Hermione know each other?" asked James as he quickly sent a wink at Sirius.

"We actually met in Flourish and Blott's last week. You know, the day that you and Sirius ran off and left me in order to go salivate over the new Comet 150 that just came out."

A look of comprehension washed over James' face as he recalled the events. "Yeah, but you can't argue with the fact that it is the best broom on the market." Hermione just shook her head at this comment. To her boys would always agree when it came to racing brooms and quidditch.

Sirius drew her attention as he began to speak. "Since this is your first year at Hogwart's where did you go to school before?"

Taking in a breath she had to smile at the fact that it was Sirius that started the inquisition she knew was coming. She would have to tell her "Uncle Sirius" about it either tonight or tomorrow. "Well, until three months ago I lived in Lyon, France with my parents and I was home schooled by my mother. I am staying with my uncle now and since he took the DADA position I will be attending Hogwart's this year."

A mischievous gleam erupted in Sirius' eyes at the pronouncement of her uncle being a professor. Hermione could just see the wheels turning in Sirius' head as he thought over numerous pranks to 'welcome' the new professor with. At the sight Hermione decided to have some fun at Sirius' expense.

"I should let you know that my uncle and I have been forewarned about you and the fact that you guys like to play pranks on students and professors. I should probably warn you guys that my Uncle Sirius can usually give better than he gets when it comes to pranks and you don't want to end up on his hit list."

The comment that their new DADA professor was good at pranks and could possibly be better than them seemed to be accepted as a silent challenge to the group of boys to prove that they were the best. Hermione would have to let Uncle Sirius know to be on the look-out. "Just remember that I did warn you."

***Through the Veil***

The rest of the train ride passed with the group talking and playing a few games of Exploding Snap. After a short time together, it felt as if they had been friends for years. Remus had left to attend the prefect meeting and do rounds, but other than that no one seemed to bother them and the train ride was spent comfortably goofing around.

By the time the train pulled into the Hogsmeade Station they had all changed into their school uniforms and donned their school robes. Instead of leaving her bag on the train Hermione had shrunk it and put it in her pocket. She followed the boys as they lead the way off the train and into the first available carriage. Distantly in the background Hermione could hear Hagrid calling the first years to him for their trip across the lake.

As soon as the door closed the carriage set off down the bumpy lane towards Hogwarts. Now, as Hermione approached the castle she could feel her nervousness and depression setting back in. She had never been a good liar, but over the years through all of the adventures that she had had with Harry and Ron, she had become much more skilled in that area. It was now a reality to her that when she walked through the doors to the Entrance Hall in a few short minutes that a lie would be exactly what her life would be from this point forward. One very large lie with only her Sirius knowing the complete truth. Everyone she would meet would only know the lies that she told them about herself.

As the truth of her situation hit home she felt the lack of Harry and Ron's presence as if she were submerged at the bottom of the Black Lake (again) cut off from everyone else. Harry and Ron had been her best friends since Halloween of her first year. They were her anchors in an unstable life that she had found herself in. They had been there for each other through everything they had come across, and now she was on her own. They weren't here to help her through this. She was truly on her own.

As the carriage came to a stop the boys exited and Remus held her hand to help her down from the carriage. He seemed to sense that she was lost in thought and sent her a friendly smile. Hermione gratefully returned it and took a deep breath to steady herself before following the hoard of students climbing the stairs to the Entrance Hall.


End file.
